to not be able to bear being in meetings any more?

[liltclassic]

I cannot take the sound of other people's voices going on and on and on any more. I've spent nearly all week stuck in meetings with people droning on about absolutely nothing and I honestly feel like weeping with boredom. I'm in one at the minute and someone has been speaking in the most monotonous voice imaginable for an hour and it's physically painful it's so boring. If he doesn't shut up soon I'm going to start crying.

AIBU to think that people shouldn't talk in meetings unless they've got something to actually say, and it's rude to keep going on and on and on?

Is that you, Theresa?

No advice but hang on in there. Nearly wine o clock and I bet everyone else feels the same.

I haven't been in meetings for most of the day but tolerance for them is low at the moment...

Meetings that should have been emails are the bane of my life.

is that you, Theresa?

😂

Public service organisation? Majority of males in meeting?

I hate people who waffle in meetings. Get the meeting done fast.

And don't have a meeting to talk about arranging a meeting ffs.

Do you really need to be there? I find "excuse me for a moment" then fucking off for an hour does it.

Unless you are TM, in which case suck it up, you're paid enough plus you stole our pensions and ruined our chosen careers for tens of thousands of us

Why is the chair of your meeting allowing one person to drone on for an hour? Why don’t you interrupt on behalf of all your colleagues, point out that you’ve all lost the will to live, and request that they summarise the remaining material in three lines!
DD is very popular as a chair at meetings - because she’s autistic, brusque and very much to the point, so one hour meetings were finished in 20 minutes, to general delight.

Meetings are the bane of my life

I so agree. I would do anything to get out of them. I remember scanning the attendees list and groaning - every organisaion has several people who just cannot shut up and say nothing constructive.

One of the best things about beng retire is no more meetings

However they did improve my dooddling skils.

Arrrgg the monotonous droning!! I learned the word 'fillibustering' recently, l think a lot of people do this as a hobby!!

I lost all interest in my job because of pointless and boring meetings. People waffling on trying to impress their managers who had done exactly the same to get to their positions and most of them completely useless with no common sense.
It was mostly a one upmanship thing. Meanwhile, the people who actually worked hard and knew what they were doing were overlooked because they couldn't be arsed playing the game.
It's usually the boring simpletons that talk the most at meetings.

Is that you, Theresa?

Public service organisation? Majority of males in meeting? Spot on!

Why is the chair of your meeting allowing one person to drone on for an hour? Because the chair's just as bad! It's always the same people who put their hands up, regardless of the subject, and spend 20 minutes waffling about nothing in order to make a point that could be made in 10 seconds. Just ask your fucking question and sit down. I'm very slightly hungover today which isn't helping my patience.

It's not tolerated at my company. There is very little tolerance for bullshit here. But I know what it feels like to be droned at outside of work.

Consider changing jobs?

Consider changing jobs? I actually love the job, but I cannot abide the waffling. Everyone puts their hand up to make the same point. Why? If your point has already been made, why not just say 'my point's already been made' and sit down? Why reiterate it for the 789th time? Presumably they must think it's a treat for us to hear their voice.

I'm going to stand for chair next year and chair harshly. I'll make myself unpopular, but at least it'll be a vent for my frustration.

My meeting bugbear is people who don’t know how to speak out properly. They mumble, or they speak too quickly or just not loudly enough for the size of the room. I’m often a note taker. I’ve had my hearing tested and it was fine.

Yanbu at all

At my last place, there was a man notorious for waffling and droning on. Eventually the chair got enough complaints and tried to cut him down on time. The waffler then threatened to raise a grievance or something.

I used to run away from the waffler in corridors. Meetings with him were torturous.

I actually took to deliberately showing my discomfort - big sighs, tapping pencil while he spoke. AFAIC he was being rude and disrespectful of everyone so my response was fair and I think it might have cut a couple of minutes from his droning on a few times.

Some of you must have been at my meeting yesterday. 2 hours of mainly one man droning in monotone. A highly clever highly respected man with no clue about not dominating meetings

I left my corporate job to avoid meetings. I now have my own business and have never held a 'meeting'. I do sit face to face with colleagues (never more than 2) and plan, check on actions etc but it's never a meeting. Life is too short.

The last meeting I had to attend was when I worked in a tier 2 role at a large utility. About 15 minutes in the person running the meeting had yet to let anyone speak so I text DH asking him to call me, he called, I said "so sorry, family emergency" walked out and drove home. I left 2 weeks later. Freedom from commuting and meetings is worth a considerable drop in salary.

I avoid the office as much as possible because of this. I am technically an "agile worker", so I can work where I please as long as it gets done. In reality, the majority of my team do use the central office and it can get very tedious.

Today I'm having a lovely day in Starbucks getting shit loads done. It's warm, the seats are comfy, the WiFI is awesome and there is NOBODY ELSE HERE TO TALK TO ME. They can send me emails and I will deal with them in strict order instead of being interrupted every 10 minutes to talk about something that isn't really my job.

Is that you, Theresa?

I hate meetings where all they talk about the future meetings

Feel your pain litclassic - I've had more meetings in the last two weeks than I care to recall. Its the stench of bad morning /coffee breath that gets me. I can barely concentrate sometimes because the smell is so unendurable. I offer smints around but that only masks it briefly.

And yes, so many men of a slightly older generation in these meetings, all loving the sound of their own voice and unable to let someone else have the last word. Sigh!

YANBU.

My work loves meetings.

Every month they make us have a five hour away day in which they sit us in a room and talk at us. Every month.

In my head I always think "I could have flown to Tenerife in the time I've been sat here".

Hate them.

Where I used to work we had a monthly governance meeting. The boss decided that prior to the governance meeting there should be a pre-meeting meeting. Fine I did think, that's just about bearable. Then someone else implemented a pre-pre-meeting meeting about what we would discuss at the pre-meeting meeting. I nearly choked on my coffee when that became a thing!!

Start a sweep on how long each bore will drivel on for?

People like this make me murderous. The arrogance of them, thinking that everybody NEEDS to hear their perorations.

I had a CEO once who interrupted a particularly boring presentation, accompanied by boring slides, by saying, “you’ve been talking for 45 minutes now and you still haven’t got to the point. You’ve got five minutes more before I move on to the next item. Make them count.”